Big Week In Cabinet Confirmations Ahead

There are currently ten Trump nominations pending before a Senate that seems intent on stretching the process out until sometime in early 2019.

Tonight we expect two cabinet secretaries to be confirmed. Beginning at 7pm, the Senate will start voting on Steven Mnuchin to be Secretary of Treasury. He is expected to pass on a party line vote. He will be followed by David Shulkin to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He’ll be confirmed with no problems. The fact that the Democrats have held up a completely non-confrontational nomination is a sign that obstructionism for the sake of obstructionism is the real game.

Tuesday, Linda McMahon will get a vote. There doesn’t seem to be any opposition to her.

Later this week we should get votes on Ryan Zinke (Interior) and Rick Perry (Energy). There is some resistance forming to Zinke but both those votes should be strongly bipartisan.

There are stories that Wilbur Ross (Commerce), Ben Carson (HUD), Scott Pruitt (EPA), and Mick Mulvaney (OMB), will also get a vote this week but those stories reference Mitch McConnell, so take it for what it’s worth. We know that for sure Pruitt and Mulvaney will get no more that GOP votes.